A young girl is kidnapped and there is an attempt on the daughter of an well-known actress. The kidnapper then turns up dead. Hammer is hired to protect the girl and travels to Los Angeles, where she is then kidnapped.
Tom Nichols is a hardened New England detective, unflinching in his pursuit of a case where nothing is as it seems and it begins to dismantle the illusions in his own life.
In a fantastical 40's where magic is used by everyone, a hard-boiled detective investigates the theft of a mystical tome.
A double-crossing woman, the two-timing P.I. she hired, the corpulent "empress of crime", and a gentleman thief are all after a legendary priceless eighth-century ram's horn.
A high-stakes poker game is robbed and Pat intervenes as the thieves make their getaway. He is shot in the back and then framed as a drug dealer. Hammer makes it his job to clear Pat and find out who nearly killed him.
Private eye Philip Marlowe helps friend Terry Lennox out of a jam and is implicated in his wife Sylvia's murder. He also is hired by Eileen Wade to locate her dipsomaniac husband Roger, who frequently disappears when he wants to dry out.
